THE MINISTRY MAGNIFIED. 



• 



A SERMON 
* 



PREACHED AT THE 



INSTALLATION OF REV. C. HOOVER : 



AS PASTOR OF THE 



CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

NEWARK, N. J. 

BY THE REV. DAVID MAGI% 

OF ELIZAEETHTOWN, N. J. 



'ublished at the joint request of the Presbytery of Newark, anil the Trustees of said Church. 









' •**. * 




NEWARK, N. J. 

PUBLISHED BY THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 




n F. Trow, Miiter, 13 JolAst?, New-Yorjt. 



teUuBu^atarro^^.F^.w-ifS^ 



X 













\ - 



K _ 



V 






I 



r 



THE MINISTRY MAGNIFIED, 

A SERMON 

PREACHED AT THE 

INSTALLATION OF REV. C. HOOVER, 

AS PASTOR OF THE 

CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

NEWARK, N. J. 

t 
BY THE REV. DAVID JtfAGIE, 

OF ELIZABETHTOWN, N. J. 
Published at the joint request of the Presbytery of Newark, and the Trustees of said Church. 



NEWARK, N. J. 

PUBLISHED BY THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 



John F. Trow, Printer, 13Johri-st., New-York. 

1837, 



A 



4 V 



SERMON 



Romans ii. 13. — I magnify mine office. 

My theme, as you all perceive, has been sug- 
gested by the occasion. We are met, as a Pres- 
bytery, in accordance with the provisions of our 
form of Church Government, to unite a minister 
and a people together as Pastor and flock. The 
relation is interesting in itself, and momentous in 
its consequences. What we do this evening will 
surely come up in review, with all its unnum- 
bered influences and results, at the great and final 
day. 

What then could be better adapted to the 
service before us, than the words I have just re- 
peated? If this brother and this Church are to 
derive any important blessings from the connection 
which is now to be formed between them, they 
must both form proper views of the nature and the 
import of the Christian ministry. He will need 
this to know how to labour, and they will need it 
to know how to profit by his labours. 



4 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

We do not wish to see our beloved friend mag- 
nify himself, but he may magnify his office. Paul 
did this. This wonderful man, distinguished as he 
was for the most unaffected lowliness of mind, had 
learned to set a very high value upon his calling, 
as an ambassador of Christ. He would not haA^e 
given up this delightful work for the throne and 
the diadem of the Caesars. 

Why then should the office of the ministry be 
magnified ? and how should ministers magnify their 
office ? To these two points let me solicit your 
serious attention for a few minutes. 

I. WHY IS THE OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY TO BE 
MAGNIFIED ? 

One reason why this office should be magnified 

IS ITS GREAT PRESENT USEFULNESS TO MANKIND. 

On this topic it cannot be necessary to dw T eil. 
Probably nineteen-twentieths of all the intelligent 
and respectable men in the community, regard 
the ministry of the Gospel as the grand ornament, 
and chief support of virtue's cause. Almost uni- 
versal suffrage would go as far as this. It is diffi- 
cult for either the moralist or the novel writer to 
draw a picture of a quiet, sober, industrious, and 
happy neighbourhood, in which the parish minister 
has no place. Indeed, the attempt is scarcely ever 
made. Take up any finished description you 
please, of rural contentment or village peaceful- 
ness, and you will find a large space given to the 
labours and sympathies of the minister. No good 
man can long occupy such a position without leav- 
ing traces of his usefulness. He is connected, from 



INSTALLATION SERMON. O 

the very nature of bis calling, with all the endear- 
ments of social and domestic life, and his influence 
is exerted under the very circumstances adapted 
to give it most power. His lessons, from day to 
day, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, tend both to 
mend the manners and to soften the heart. As 
the effect of his labours, husbands look upon their 
wives with purer affection, wives lean upon their 
husbands with augmented confidence, parents are 
more kind, and children more dutiful, and brothers 
and sisters dwell together in sweeter unity. People 
do better without almost any thing, than without 
a kind-hearted, faithful minister. Kide through 
the country, in whatever direction you choose, and 
tell me, can you find a single peaceful town, or vir- 
tuous village, that is not blessed with the toils and 
cheered by the influences of such a man 7 There 
can be no mistake here. Men must give up the 
Sabbath to idleness and dissipation, and consign 
their children to ignorance and infamy, or provide 
themselves with a faithful minister of the gospel. 
On this ground alone, the calling claims to be re- 
spected. 

Again. — The office should be magnified be- 
cause IT DEMANDS great respectability of per- 
sonal character. 

This is a matter in which all classes of men, 
the bad as well as the good, agree. No inin- 
ister among us, can expect to maintain his stand- 
ing or influence for a single year, unless he is care- 
ful to illustrate by his life what he teaches in his 



INSTALLATION SERMON, 



sermons. The people require their Pastor to be 
an example of the virtues which he recommends 
to them. Neither weakness nor wickedness can, 
in our day, and among Protestant Christians, be 
concealed by robes of office, nor can it be taken 
for granted that the goodness of the calling will 
make up for the badness of the man. As has 
been quaintly remarked, a Minister may easily 
cut the throat of what he says in the pulpit, by 
what he does out of it. An ignorant, vain, rash, 
imprudent man, had better do any thing in the 
world than preach the gospel. There is too much 
intelligence abroad in the land, and men are too 
eagle-eyed to the faults of the ministry, for any 
one to hope to be permanently useful without a 
fair character. No other office on earth demands 
such purity of heart, and such consistency of de- 
portment. Men will not be rebuked for sin by one 
who himself indulges in sin, or exhorted to lay up 
a treasure in heaven by one who gives evidence 
that he himself minds earthly things. The people 
cannot be expected to rise above their teacher. 
If the flock is to exhibit the graces of the spirit, the 
shepherd must put on bowels of mercies, kindness, 
humbleness of mind, meekness, and long suffering. 
Pride, rudeness, and levity, are never more out of 
place, than when found under the garb of the 
Christian Ministry. You could scarcely find a 
congregation, so lost to all sense of propriety and 
self-respect, as to be willing to have a Pastor with 
any radical defects of this sort. The office, even 



I 



INSTALLATION SERMON. / 

in the estimation of careless men, is too sacred to 
be committed to impure hands. There is felt to 
be a sanctity in the calling, which ought never to 
be dissevered from a corresponding sanctity in the 
character and deportment of him who fills it. An 
intelligent, faithful, consistent Minister of the Gos- 
pel will be respected. The attempts of vile peo- 
ple to weaken his hands and mar his usefulness, 
like Balaam's going about from mountain to hill 
to curse Israel, will only brighten his reputation, 
and increase his influence. Such a man may be 
opposed, but he can never be despised. 

Again. — He should magnify the office be- 
cause it is an office, in a peculiar sense from, God. 

If the days of miracles are gone by, it is not so 
with those of providence and grace. We regard 
it as a fundamental point, that every minister of 
the gospel is called of God to this work, just as 
much as Aaron was to the exercise of his Priest- 
hood, though not in precisely the same way. The 
Lord of the vineyard selects labourers for that 
vineyard. Paul's purest, best, holiest feelings were 
awakened, when he thanked God for putting him 
into the ministry. By a series of providential dis- 
pensations, such as the individual himself can 
scarcely misinterpret, and by the secret drawings 
of the Spirit, men are separated to the service of 
God in the gospel of his Son. To them it is given, 
by authority which none can dispute, to preach 
the unsearchable riches of Christ. They are sent 
by Him, who is higher than all the kings of the 
earth, to make proclamation of mercy to a lost 



8 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

world — to urge sinners of every age and name to 
believe and be saved. No other embassy can 
trace its origin so directly to the counsels of Heaven. 
We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, 
be ye reconciled to God. The grand business of 
this order of men is to act in the name, and on the 
behalf of the Redeemer himself. They stand in 
his place in the pulpit, occupy his seat at the 
Lord's table, and deliver his message in their ser- 
mons. The commission which they hold in their 
hands is from one, who has upon his vesture, and 
upon his thigh a name written, King of kings, and 
Lord of lords. Their office and their master are 
so conjoined that men cannot honour the one 
without honouring the other. 

Again. — This office ought to be magnified on 

ACCOUNT OF THE IMPORTANT INTERESTS WITH WHICH 
IT HAS TO DO. 

Every minister labours for the soul, andhis work 
takes hold on Eternity. The very object for which 
he is sent forth, is to open blind eyes, and to turn 
men from darkness to light, and from the power 
of Satan unto God. Never should he forget that 
the grand design of his high calling is to save sin- 
ners from ruin. To-day he is called to visit some 
careless family, for the purpose of warning them 
to flee from the wrath to come. To-morrow he 
meets with a lovely youth, just beginning to ask 
what he must do to inherit eternal life. The day 
after he is approached by a man struggling under 
a burden of guilt, and despondency of more than a 



INSTALLATION SERMON. 9 

mountain's weight. Now you see him by the side 
of a sick bed, using his utmost skill, and bringing 
out from the Bible all that is tender and terrible, 
for the sake of awakening emotion. Again he is 
found helping some devout believer's joy, and open- 
ing the very portals of bliss to the admiring view 
of the dying saint. When you next meet him he 
is found sitting in the midst of an afflicted group, 
and in tones of angel sweetness talking to the 
comfort of those whom God has wounded. He 
watches for souls as one who must give account. 
How solemn and weighty is his office, if measured 
by the magnitude of the interests which it involves 1 
No other calling is connected with interests so 
tender, and so enduring. 

One more. — The office of the ministry can- 
not BE TOO MUCH MAGNIFIED IF WE LOOK AT ITS AF- 
FECTING RESULTS. 

It has suspended upon it issues of a momentous 
character. Is the Preacher of the gospel a spiritual 
physician ? — he has to prescribe for cases which 
may reach their crisis in a day, or an hour. Is he 
a merchant 1 — his commerce is in goodly pearls, 
and he freights his vessel with that which is of 
more value than a world. Is he a husbandman 1 — 
the seed which he goes forth weeping to sow, is to 
produce a harvest, either of glory, or of shame and 
everlasting contempt. His plans are laid, and his 
labours performed with a view to the retributions 
of Eternity. Thousands, and perhaps tens of thou- 
sands, to whose destiny he has been instrumental 
in giving shape and colour, are to meet him at the 

2 



10 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

bar of God, there to rejoice, or to mourn over the 
influences of- his ministry. All its grand issues 
and results will be spread out before the universe. 
His office will be seen to be a momentous one, 
where multitudes through its instrumentality shall 
find themselves just going to wear the crown, and 
sing the praises of the heavenly world. Nor will 
it seem to be less momentous, when perhaps upon 
still larger numbers, it shall be found to have drawn 
down an aggravated condemnation. The minis- 
try of the man is closed, but its influence will be 
felt both in heaven and hell, and felt through eter- 
nity. As often as the ransomed of his flock raise 
their voices in notes of praise, they will think of 
the kind pastor, who so gladly turned their feet 
into the way of peace. And»as often too as the 
cup of trembling shall be put to the lips of the lost 
among his people, will it revive the remembrance 
of one, who laboured for their salvation. 

Stop then and weigh these several consider- 
ations for one moment. Look at the usefulness 
of the Christian ministry, at the respectability of 
character which it demands, at its divine origin, 
at the important interests which it contemplates — 
and at its grand and awful results — and tell me, 
ought not the office to be magnified ? To speak 
of it in terms of ridicule, or to attempt in any way 
to lessen its efficiency among men, argues a weak 
head as well as a bad heart. The office is honour- 
able, and ought every where to be so regarded. 
But after all, the proper elevation of ministerial 
character and standing in the view of the people, 



INSTALLATION SERMON. 11 

must depend very much upon the temper and 
spirit of those, who act in this capacity. 

This brings us to inquire 2d. How ministers 

SHOULD MAGNIFY THEIR OFFICE. 

There are many ways of doing this, one of 
which is to cherish exalted views of the nature 

OF THE OFFICE, AND ITS GREAT OBJECTS. 

Blessed be God — said the ardent and devoted 
Martyn — I feel myself to be his minister. To 
preach the gospel, even in the most obscure cor- 
ner of the earth, is a high calling, and the man 
that desires to do it, desires a good work. He 
cannot estimate the service to which the Holy 
Ghost has separated him above its real magni- 
tude. This is not a business to be pursued for the 
sake of rising into popular favour, or gaining the 
wealth and honours of the world. That minister 
will always best magnify his office, who succeeds 
most effectually in turning the attention of the 
people from himself, to the cause he advocates. 
Like the priest in the Jewish sacrifices, he must 
be hidden behind the cloud of incense which rises 
from his own censer. It is honour enough for any 
good man to preach the gospel of Christ. Let him 
do this faithfully, and as one who expects soon to 
meet his people at the bar of God, and his office 
can never come into disrepute. The grand pur- 
pose of his life is to convert men to God, and his 
arguments for the attainments of this object are 
drawn from the burning mountain, and the bloody 
hill. This is an office that he cannot, like Balaam, 
barter for gold, nor like Diotrephes 5 make a step- 



12 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

ping stone to power. Every solicitation to turn 
aside from his proper work, as a minister of Christ 
he will steadfastly repel. You will not hear him 
crying, lo ! here, and lo ! there, or find him attempt- 
ing to gain attention by strangeness, rather than 
by excellence. He has too much regard for his 
office to pursue any other than an open, manly, 
consistent course. If friends forsake him, and bit- 
ter opposition arise, he finds comfort in the reflec- 
tion that he is God's servant, and must stand or 
fall to his own master. He loves his work for its 
own sake, and sooner would he wither his right 
arm than think lightly of it. You will not find 
him growing restive, and impatiently inquiring for 
a new field of labour, because obstacles lie in his 
way, and he does not meet with much immediate 
success. Year after year is he the same humble, 
stable man, let him be either hindered or helped. 
He knows what it is to have dark hours, but his 
heart relies upon the sure word of promise, and 
thus is he kept quietly waiting for the salvation of 
the Lord. Such a man cannot but be regarded as 
a credit to his calling. Let his position be ever 
so retired, or the sphere of his influence ever so 
small, he will earn a name, which will be had in 
everlasting remembrance. 

Another method of magnifying this office is 

TO BE WELL QUALIFIED FOR THE DISCHARGE OF ITS 
DUTIES. 

The honour of the calling, be it ever remembered, 
is but an appendage to the work of the calling. 
A service so sacred in its character, and so solemn 



INSTALLATION SERMON. 13 

in its results may well be supposed to require en- 
dowments, and attainments, both of mind and heart, 
of no ordinary character. How exhausting are 
the demands daily made upon the strength, and re- 
sources of a Christian minister ! What a multitude 
of cares press upon him — what a variety of topics 
has he to discuss — and what a range of thought 
is it necessary for him to employ 1 Never can he 
make full proof of his ministry, unless he be a man 
of God thoroughly furnished unto every good work. 
Talents, natural and acquired, are needed here, 
and here they have scope for the fullest exercise. 
A faithful minister of Christ feels that he has no 
time to be idle. Every wakeful hour should be 
employed either in doing, or in getting good — either 
in adding to the good treasure of his heart, or in 
bringing out from it, things both new and old. 
He does not look for rest this side of heaven — Till 
he dies his wish is to be a student. He will be 
learning from the air, the land and the waters, 
and seeking daily to enrich his store with collec- 
tions from the top of Parnassus, as well as from 
the brow of Calvary. Buonaparte acted upon this 
principle. Never could he enter a new city or 
country, without at once thinking where would be 
a good place for a castle or a camp, and how he 
might seize upon this point for defence, and upon 
that for annoyance. Just so in a sanctified sense 
should it be with every Preacher of the gospel. We 
live at a period when men can no longer draw 
around themselves the folds of their official dignity 
and exert a permanent influence without a high 



14 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

degree of mental and moral culture. Theirs is a 
service for which they must always be ready. 
Now and then a splendid effort, or an occasional 
display of genius and imagination will not secure 
an abiding hold upon the affections and respects of 
the people. The credit of the minister can never 
be long sustained, when there is no proper fit- 
ness for the labour of the ministry. What but 
their sanctified talent, has handed down the 
names of Baxter, and Owen, and Doddridge, and 
Edwards, and Scott with such lasting honour 1 
Mind can never cause its power over mind to be 
fully felt without long and patient culture. Other 
things being equal, the man of vigorous and well- 
trained intellect, will always succeed best in 
adorning the character of his high calling. 

Again. Ministers may magnify their office 

BY EXEMPLARY FIDELITY IN ALL THE DETAILS OF 
THEIR PROPER WORK. 

Bishop, in its original import, is not a title 
without toil, or a revenue without care of souls. 
It implies watchfulness, inspection, oversight. 
The overseer of the flock of God, is to feed it 
with the bread of life, which cometh down from 
heaven. This comprises every thing. The doc- 
trines of the gospel are to be preached plainly and 
faithfully, however they may disturb the self-com- 
placency, or offend the pride of carnal men. Its 
duties are to be inculcated with unrel axing strict- 
ness, whatever be their contrariety to the ways of 
a wicked world. Nothing either of faith or prac- 
tice is to be kept back. Every good Minister of 



INSTALLATION SERMON. 15 

Jesus Christ will take his stand upon the plain 
and unsophisticated word of truth, and warn men 
from God, as one who neither fears their frowns, 
nor courts their smiles. He will not be content 
with the performance of merely official duty; 
every where, and at all times will he be a Minis- 
ter of the gospel ; in the parlour as well as in the 
pulpit, and through the week as well as on the 
Sabbath. You will meet him in the hovel of 
poverty as often as in the mansion of opulence. 
His object is to commend himself to every man's 
conscience in the sight of God. So impressed is 
he with the dignity of his own calling that he 
goes forward in it, without timidity, reserve, sub- 
terfuge, or concealment. Difficulties do not dis- 
hearten him, nor does opposition unnerve his 
arm. As an angel of mercy he moves around 
among his people, dispensing blessings wherever 
he goes, and causing the heart of the widow and 
the orphan to leap for joy. His object is to be 
familiar and easy, and at the same time, never to 
render himself cheap or common. Fidelity with 
him is not rudeness, nor does his sense of duty 
lead him to disregard the proper decencies and 
courtesies of life. His people view him as a kind- 
hearted, Christian gentleman, influenced to seek 
their welfare by choice, as well as office. This 
gives him access to their hearts, and aids him 
greatly in the work of doing them good. His 
honest, upright, benevolent course, wins the admi- 
ration of multitudes, to whom after all he is only 
a savour of death unto death. 



16 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

Another way in which Ministers may mag- 
nify their office, is, by manifesting a firm reli- 
ance ON THE PROPER EFFICACY OF THE GOSPEL. 

This is the grand instrument by which God is 
accomplishing his everlasting purposes of mercy, 
and working salvation in the midst of earth. It 
does not belong to ministers to make experiments 
for the relief of human wo, or the removal of hu- 
man guilt. They do not come forth to a world of 
dying men as a physician approaches a patient, 
whose case he does not comprehend, and for 
whom he is in doubt what to prescribe. The gos- 
pel is a specific, in the true sense of the term, and 
whenever it is cordially received, never fails to 
work a complete and radical cure. Our hearers, 
dead in trespasses and sins, are hastening on to 
the judgment, and the awful retributions of eter- 
nity. We have a commission to go and proclaim 
in their ears the full ability, and the boundless 
compassion of the Redeeming Saviour. This is 
heaven's sole appointed remedy, and on it is every 
preacher of the gospel to rely. His chief business 
consists in directing sinners of every age and name 
to the Lamb of God, which taketli away the sins 
of the world. It is below the true dignity of his 
office to turn aside for the sake of catching atten- 
tion, or awakening curiosity. A respect for his 
own high calling, and a thorough conviction of 
the perfect adaptation of the simple gospel to 
work its appropriate results, will not fail to 
preserve him from every thing like startling no- 
velty, or bold manoeuvre. The stream of his com- 



INSTALLATION SERMON. 17 

passion for impenitence runs too deep to gurgle or 
foam. Though he mourn day after day over the 
dreadful obduracy of the human heart, still he 
feels that he has no expedient to resort to, but 
the application of the gospel. You may see him 
taking his position at the foot of the cross, and 
pointing men to its bleeding victim. Here they 
must find relief or die. In the great work of 
building up the spiritual temple of the Lord, his 
aim is to do every thing according to the pattern 
showed to him in the Bible. He does not mix 
the wine of Sodom with the cup of salvation. 
With the gospel in his hand, and the promise of 
the Spirit as his encouragement, he can go forth 
and prophesy to the dry bones of the valley, 
without the least fear or misgiving. In doing 
this he expects divine help : for the same lips 
which gave the command — Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature — 
uttered also the promise — Lo ! I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world. The 
encouragement is as large as the duty ; the sup- 
port commensurate with the service. 

Once more— Ministers may magnify their 

OFFICE BY ZEAL AND FERVOUR IN THIS WORK. 

It is humiliating to think that there should be 
any room for the taunting remark of a celebrated 
actor. He was asked why people listened with 
so much emotion to the fictions of the stage, while 
they sat with such disheartening apathy under 
the awful truths of the pulpit. His reply was — 
We deliver fiction like truth, but you ministers 

3 



18 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

deliver truth like fiction. Every one must see 
that there is a sad incongruity in speaking about 
God, and Christ, and sin, and eternity, in such a 
way as to leave our hearers in doubt whether we 
really believe our own message. It is as true now 
as it ever was, that the readiest way to make others 
weep, is to weep ourselves. Talents are useful. 
High attainments are useful. But to make ta- 
lents and attainments yield their full fruits, there 
must be fervour of spirit. A serious, affectionate, 
warm-hearted minister will win upon the regards 
of a people, and be a blessing to them, where a 
cold, phlegmatic man can do nothing. It is cruel 
to stand with unconcern, and tell sinners that he 
that believeth not must be damned. We are not 
with feelings of chilling indifference, to lead men 
to Gethsemane and Calvary, and show them the 
agonies and the blood of those affecting scenes. 
If we speak of the Judge, and the great white 
throne, and the assembled universe — if we bid 
men to hearken to the words of Christ, as he pro- 
nounces the destiny of the righteous and the wicked 
— if we draw aside the veil, and tell them to look 
in upon the joys of the saved, and the wailings of 
the lost, we must feel what we say. What min- 
isters need, is a tender, sympathetic spirit. Only 
let them have this, and every word, every action, 
every look, every tear will be eloquent. I have 
no wish — said the excellent Leigh Richmond — 
to be a popular preacher in any sense but one, 
namely, a preacher to the hearts of the people. 
This is the only popularity worth a single thought. 



INSTALLATION SERMON. 19 

And now Fathers and Brethren of this Pres- 
bytery, you see your calling, and how it is in your 
own power to magnify it. Cherish a high value 
for your office ; court earnestly the best gifts ; be 
exemplary in every duty ; rely on the simple gos- 
pel, and preach it with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from heaven, and the ministry will never fall into 
disrepute in your hands. I speak freely on this 
great subject, because I address men whom I love 
in the Lord. My heart tells me that it is as your 
heart, in all your prayers and toils for the upbuild- 
ing of Christ's kingdom, and this emboldens me 
to be frank and open. 

It is not to be concealed that we are fallen 
upon times of peculiar difficulty for the magnify- 
ing of our office. No attentive observer, whether 
in the church or out of it, can help seeing that 
there is something in the present state of things, 
calculated to lower ministerial character, and 
circumscribe ministerial usefulness. The same 
amount of talent and piety will not go so far now 
as it did in the days of our fathers. One reason, 
and perhaps the main reason of this, is, that Min- 
isters even at the same common altars, no longer 
labour together, and pray together as they did in 
former times. In multitudes of cases, they have 
ceased to respect each other, and how can they 
look for the respect of other men 1 

Much as I feel encouraged to repose in your 
confidence, I hardly dare trust myself to say all I 
feel on this distressing topic. With parties as 
such, it is perhaps best to have nothing to do ; but 



20 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

who can overlook the consequences of these unhappy 
discussions % You have probably heard of the two 
large bodies of forces, which fell in with each 
other, on a certain dark and gloomy night. A 
battle immediately ensued, and the contest was 
fierce and bloody. Great was the slaughter on 
both sides, and both sides were on the point of 
claiming the victory, when lo ! as the day broke 
they found to their astonishment that they were 
actually divisions of the same army, fighting for 
the same country, and under the direction of the 
same general. They had been doing, in the dark, 
their enemies' work, and weakening the very 
cause which they wished to support. The moral 
of this is plain. 

Because of contention Zion mourns. There is 
such a total prostration of mutual confidence, that 
our Church seems on the very eve of dismember- 
ment, and the glory of the Lord has gone up from 
the house of the Lord. On every side we hear 
the loud lamentation — Where is the Lord God of 
our former revivals ? Nor is this the worst. So 
long as whisperings, backbitings, and tumults con- 
tinue, our Church can never move forward pro- 
minently and gloriously in the work of the world's 
conversion. Men of blood are not to build the 
temple of God. " For the divisions of Reuben 
there were great searchings of heart," and that 
tribe had not the honour of overthrowing Jabin 
and Sisera in the high places of the field. The 
very miseries of the heathen implore us to cease 
our unholy strifes. 



INSTALLATION SERMON. 21 

Do you ask — What is to be done 1 This is a 
question which I feel incompetent to answer. 
But one thing to me is plain. Separation, in the 
present posture of affairs, will never work a cure. 
Were our Church this day divided into two par- 
ties, there would be almost equal necessity for a 
third, and perhaps a fourth. We cannot go with 
either of the extremes. 

As for giving up any thing of the truth or or- 
der of the gospel, we never may, and we never 
can. The doctrines of our standards, and of our 
pious forefathers, are doctrines which we must 
love and preach till we die. Be it far from us 
ever to explain away the connection between the 
sinfulness of the race, and the first sin of their 
great progenitor. We are never to let any sys- 
tem of Philosophy, falsely so called, rob us of our 
reliance on the atoning blood, and perfect right- 
eousness of the Redeemer. It is impossible for us 
to give up the special agency of the Divine Spirit 
in changing the heart of man. These are the doc- 
trines which we have too frequently seen working 
salvation in our churches, ever to abandon. We 
might as well renounce our Bibles, as to give up 
these cardinal truths. 

Nay, we are prepared to go even further. We 
say, and we say it openly, and in the face of the 
world, that we wish to encourage no measures 
which have not the plain sanction of the Bible, 
and of long experience. On this subject we have 
nothing to keep back. What was done by the 
loved and venerated men, who occupied these pul- 



22 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

pits twenty years ago, is just what we desire to do, 
and no more. We are content to walk in the 
footsteps of the flock. Father and Brethren, are 
not these the feelings of your hearts 1 

But learn to contend for these old ways only 
in love. If compelled in the providence of God to 
enter the field of controversy, go forth I entreat 
you in the armour of an Israelite, and not in that 
of an uncircumcised Philistine. Let this be the 
inscription on your banner — the wrath of man 
worketh not the righteousness of God. Maintain 
this spirit, and though called to stand in the fore- 
front of the hottest battle, you will bring no dis- 
credit upon either your character or your office. 
Paul was a controversialist, and so was Edwards, 
but they never tarnished their reputation by it. 
Close and cogent as were their arguments, and 
weak and worthless as they made the opinions of 
their antagonists to appear, they never were 
betrayed into a forgetfulness of what was due to 
themselves as Christian ministers. Here was no 
subterfuge, or sly attack, but all was open, and 
bold, and manly. Follow such examples, and you 
cannot fail to magnify your office. 

After all, it is not safe for most ministers to 
embark in warm controversy. Such is their want 
of equanimity, and self controul, that they seldom 
fail to injure, not only themselves, but the very 
cause which they espouse. The good done is a 
hundred times overbalanced by the direct, obvious 
and wide-spread evils which are seen to follow. 

Let me tell you how this matter appears in the 



INSTALLATION SERMON. 23 

near prospect of heaven. A few weeks before the 
death of the lamented Nevins, I had the high priv- 
ilege of making him a visit. I found him calm 
and tranquil, but more deeply, and I might almost 
say, awfully solemn thau any man I ever saw. 
After a few remarks about the nearness of the eter- 
nal world, the unprofitableness of his own minis- 
tery, and the desire he sometimes felt to be spared 
for a little further service, he fixed his piercing 
eyes full upon me, and in the most impressive man- 
ner charged me never to take an active part in the 
contentions of our beloved church, but to content 
myself with simply preaching Christ. This he 
repeated with an emphasis and an urgency which 
I hope never to forget. Those of you who knew 
the man can imagine how he appeared, and what 
a penetration there was in his manner, and the 
tones of his voice. It was altogether such a scene 
as I could wish my own heart, and the heart of 
every brother in the ministry, to be affected with. 
What we need then to magnify our office, and 
to give increased efficiency to our ministry, is more 
of the meek, humble, and devoted spirit of our 
blessed Master. Have you ever thought how Bax- 
ter was instrumental of bringing almost every fam- 
ily of an immense congregation, to be a family of 
daily prayer? Read his Saints' Rest, and notice 
the deep devotion of every one of its pages, and 
the secret is found out. Did you ever inquire what 
it was in the preaching of Brainard that made the 
wild and hardy savage throw down his tomahawk, 
and cry for mercy ! Examine his Diary, and see 



s< 



24 INSTALLATION SERMON. 

him on his knees in the wilderness, and the mys- 
tery is solved. Has it ever entered your minds to 
stop and ask, where Payson's great strength lay 1 
Look yonder and behold his tears as he meets an 
impenitent Parishioner by the way side ; the ques- 
tion is answered. These men walked with God. 
They lived near the mercy seat — they magnified 
their office. 

Fathers, brethren, friends, look forward a 
few years, and what do we behold % These desks 
are filled by other preachers, and these beloved 
flocks are fed by other hands. The sun shines, 
and the cold winds of heaven blow, upon our graves. 
And what, O what traces of usefulness shall we 
leave behind us? May we hope to live in the 
grateful recollection of survivors, and speak after 
we are dead? Ten, twenty, thirty years hence 
shall there be persons rising up in our parishes, to 
tell how kindly we warned them, and how sweetly 
we led their feet into the way of peace ? Lord 
God of our fathers, grant this, and we ask 
no more. 






■ 



1 




\ 



it™,??, 0F congress' 



022 168 903 3 



\ 



y 



i 



